Archives for February 2016

If you’ve served or led for any length of time, then you’ve probably watched a key initiative come up short. Maybe a ministry plan was doomed from the start. Perhaps it was slowly and quietly smothered by competing priorities.

What happened? The whirlwind of day-to-day activities consumed most of your time and energy, leaving little margin for important and strategic things.

Ministry 4DX is the application of Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to church growth and revitalization. It leads your team to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. 4DX includes:

Discipline #1 – Focus on the wildly important

Discipline #2 – Act on the lead measure.

Discipline #3 – Create a compelling scoreboard.

Discipline #4 – Create a cadence of accountability.

Create a compelling scoreboard. Since each ministry area or department has 1 or 2 wildly important goals (WIGs), it makes sense that each team will use a scoreboard that measures important lead measures for those goals.

The key idea is to take weekly stock of several lead measures, then show the lag measure they impact. Over time, positive movement in the lead measures should impact the lag measure (attendance, participation, etc.) in the right direction.

For example, a departmental scorecard for community might have five lead measures for new leaders and groups that point to one lag measure—attendance. The team’s time and energy is spent on the first five items with the expectation that average attendance will go up.

Create a cadence of accountability. Each ministry area or department can schedule weekly LAUNCH meetings to help create a cadence of accountability.

Typical meetings are no more than 20 minutes and include quick reports from everyone. Here’s a typical agenda:

Pray for each other.

What are the 1-3 most important things I can do this week to impact the scoreboard?

Report on last week’s commitments.

Review and update the scoreboard.

Make commitments for next week.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Use 4DX to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. Create a compelling scoreboard and a cadence of accountability.

If you’ve served or led for any length of time, then you’ve probably watched a key initiative come up short. Maybe a ministry plan was doomed from the start. Perhaps it was slowly and quietly smothered by competing priorities.

What happened? The whirlwind of day-to-day activities consumed most of your time and energy, leaving little margin for important and strategic things.

Ministry 4DX is the application of Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) to church growth and revitalization. It leads your team to execute on your most important strategic priorities in the midst of the whirlwind. 4DX includes:

Discipline #1 – Focus on the wildly important

Discipline #2 – Act on the lead measure.

Discipline #3 – Create a compelling scoreboard.

Discipline #4 – Create a cadence of accountability.

Focus on the wildly important. Each team needs wildly important goals (WIGs). And because team focus is quickly diluted, it’s important that ministry departments and teams have no more than 1 or 2 WIGs at the same time.

Ask the question: What do you need to focus on above all else? For example:

Evangelism WIG – Train 1,000 people to share their 1 story and memorize 1 verse, and get their commitment to share with 1 person by 8/1/16.

Worship WIG – Grow the 11:00am service +45 by 8/1/16.

Community WIG – Grow LIFE groups +80 by 8/1/16.

Service WIG – Mobilize 150 people on short-term mission trips by 8/1/16.

Act on the lead measure. Every goal needs a measuring stick, but not just any measuring stick. Placing your focus on the right measure is one of the most important things you can do to improve execution.

What’s the difference between lead and lag measures? Here’s a quick definition:

Lead Measure – Something that leads to the goal

Lag Measure – Something that measures the goal

The key idea is to take weekly stock of several lead measures, then show the lag measure they impact. Over time, positive movement in the lead measures should impact the lag measure (attendance, participation, etc.) in the right direction.